Tribune Co. is purchasing 19 TV stations owned by Local TV, including Fox31 in Denver, for $2.7 billion, the companies announced Monday. The deal makes Tribune the largest Local TV LLC station owner in the country and the owner of the most Fox affiliates.

In Denver, the consolidation is expected to bring KWGN and KDVR, which already share a building and resources, into full alignment. The two local stations are the prime example of how closely Tribune and Local TV have worked in recent years.

After almost six years in Denver as GM of Fox’s KDVR-Channel 31, steering the station to a strong No. 2 in key news demographics, Bill Schneider moves to Tampa to head Fox station WTVT there. No successor has been named, and probably won’t be until the dust settles surrounding the sale of the Fox station group and subsequent reorganization.

Which is where fact turns to rumor… meetings with visiting Tribune Co. chiefs have local employees buzzing.

The circumstances of Schneider’s ascension aren’t exactly being trumpeted by Fox higherups. At WTVT, Schneider follows Robert Linger, who faces charges of lewd behavior and indecent exposure.

On Thursday, TVNEWSDAY, an industry publication, ran a story noting the ascention of Local TV LLC, now that it has acquired the Fox station group, and noting that Local and Tribune now operate under a single management. In Denver, sources say the combo would work something like the newspaper JOA–combined business operations, independent and competitive editorial functions.

Here’s an excerpt:

In building a Top 50 chart, some analysts would combine Local TV and Tribune into one super group with total revenue of more than $1.5 billion. Such a group would rank No. 4 on the chart, just behind CBS.

That’s because Local TV and Tribune are now under common management.

After investor Sam Zell acquired Tribune and took it private last year, he recruited Randy Michaels to help him run the multimedia giant.

Unwilling to leave Local TV behind, Michaels formed a management company that runs the Tribune and Local TV stations as one.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.